Once Anew
by karhu05
Summary: After many adventures, Natsu finally faces him, yet fails. He is sent back in time though, to attempt it again, this time with more strength, and a sharper mind. A time travel fic. Rated T due to some language.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.**

* * *

Several days before, but at the same time several years after that one fateful meeting in the port town of Hargeon.

The guild was lively, as always. The sound of people fighting, the strong smell of booze, and an overall friendly atmosphere, which was immediately noticeable upon entering the guild hall.

"Oi, Natsu! You might find this interesting! I've heard that a certain "Salamander" is going to be passing through Hargeon!" The pink-haired boy heard a voice say. He was currently thinking about all sorts of interesting things, such as what will he get to eat for dinner, as his ever-faithful blue cat was resting on his shoulder.

'Igneel? Could it be?' Thought the fire mage.

"Hargeon? Where's that? Tell me!" Natsu yelled excitedly, having high hopes of finally seeing his father. After all, it's been such a long time. In addition, he was fine with believing obvious lies, as long as he had hope of seeing the big red father-figure of his.

"It's a port town not too far from here. I can show you on the map." Said the man, as he took off his seat and walked a couple of steps towards the wall. There, one could see a big, old map of Fiore. The old man pointed at a certain black dot, after gaining Natsu's attention.

"Alright, I'm off! See you guys in a week or so!" Natsu did not hesitate for a second, as he grabbed his bag, the sleeping cat and headed outside.

"See you!" Mirajane shouted from behind the bar, while preparing a drink for Cana. Or preparing a barrel, to be exact. With that said, Natsu rushed off to hopefully finally meet him again.

'I'd like to see if it's really Igneel or not, but my stomach doesen't stop growling.' he thought as he sat down near the big tree in the guild courtyard, when he experienced a sudden change of scenery. Something felt awfully wrong, and he was about to realize why.

He felt strange. He looked up, only to be terrified: the leaves weren't moving, and neither was anything else. It was as if the time had been stopped, even Happy, his ever-faithful cat was frozen! He turned his head back, as he saw something in the corner of his eye. It was a pink-haired man, wearing a white scarf. He had quite many scratches and such, yet he seemed more or less alright.

"Natsu." The ominous person began to talk in a scary tone, just like a ghost who's going to kill you. The ghost seemed to be enjoying it way too much, though, so he probably wasn't just a ghost.

"Y-you, I mean, me!?" The boy was confused.

"Yes. I am you from the future. There's no time to explain." The ghostly person replied. Natsu could see clearly now. He was smiling, and it wasn't an "I'm going to kill you painfully" smile, but a hearty smile of goodwill instead. Natsu was never the person to give long explanations, much less listen to them.

"But I will tell you this:", he continued, "you will gain all my knowledge and power, to protect, and to succeed in what lies ahead of you." The man spoke again.

"If you do not, all hope will be lost." The man said his last words, as he pulled his hand towards Natsu's head.

He touched him. Suddenly, the pink-haired fire mage felt so much information enter his head, that he passed out. To bypassers he just looked like a sleeping person, enjoying the shade of an old tree. The shadows, however, disappeared soon as the sun set and all that was left was a little crimson shade on some of the clouds to the west.

Next morning, the first rays of sun woke him up.

'Oh, right. Hargeon. Got to meet Lucy' He thought as he grabbed the cat. He now knew everything about what's to come: The dark guilds, Zeref, and so on. He didn't really care about what he should do at first, but wanted to see how his powers fare in comparison to others instead.

**In Hargeon**

He was sweating as he literally fell off the train. 'I'm glad I even survived that.' He thought. 'Doesen't seem to get any better with all those years.'

After a quick pause, he heard noise. People were being noisy, and there was something going on in the city. It didn't take long for him to find the source of commotion. Not only that, but he sensed two weak magical presences. 'They must be that kidnapper guy and Lucy' he thought.

Needless to mention, he stormed off while thinking of what he should say to Lucy, and how should he introduce himself, as it was slightly less rare for Natsu to actually think now.

As Natsu ventured through the harbour district, he saw the following scene: a supposedly handsome-looking man with purple was being handsome in front of some charmed ladies. The charm didn't last long, though, as he saw an angry boy glaring at him, the kind of glare that is out for blood. Or, at the very least, kick some ass.

"You want to see the awesome salamander, kid?" The wannabe-dragon slayer asked the real one, oblivious to who he was talking to.

"I don't have time for the likes of you!" The pink-haired boy replied.

That having said, all of the ladies admiring the former Titan Nose member rushed off to attack Natsu. All except one. One that suddenly became aware of the charm that had been cast on her, and rushed off to see the pink haired boy, but unlike the other girls, not to give him a beating.

"Alright, ladies, I have something else to tell you." Bora spoke in a relatively calm manner. "I'm having a party on my boat, and everyone's invited!"

'Yeah, right. A party.' Natsu thought. He knew well what it was going to be, but he already had a plan.

"Thank you!" The blond haired girl said, sitting down next to the nearly-injured fire mage. His clothes looked pretty beat up, but it seemed like he wasn't taking it seriously.

"Oh, it was nothing." Natsu did his usual trademark grin, trying to conceal whatever knowledge he had. Fighting his feelings is something he didn't have to encounter often.

"So, did you know that you actually helped me out?" The girl asked, a bit surprised of the boy's behaviour.

"Uh, I'm sorry?" He asked. Then, a sudden idea reached his mind.

"Oh wait, I'm hungry!" Natsu shouted. 'I think this seems a lot more natural. Either way, now I have time to think about dealing with the impostor effectively.' He thought.

"Oh well, I guess I owe you something, so what about we go eat?" The blonde summoner suggested, hoping to repay her debt.

The idea of getting their stomaches stuffed appealed to both Natsu and Happy, who had woken up now from the commotion caused by the tricked women.

**Later, in the cafe**

"Mages are awesome, aren't they?" The girl spoke happily. Her eyes were shining with excitement.

"Uh-huh-om-nom-nom." Natsu attempted to speak with his mouth full.

Lucy sweatdropped.

"Anyway, I paid you back, so I'll be heading off now! Maybe we'll see each other again!" She spoke as she stood up, and went throught the exit.

'Oh, we sure will.' Natsu thought.

"Where are we going, Natsu?" Happy spoke.

"Oh, we're just going to take a stroll near the harbour. And probably get in trouble." The pink-haired mage spoke.

"It isn't like you to take strolls, but since you're going to get in trouble I'll be with you on this one." The blue cat giggled. Happy wasn't detecting any disturbances in his friend's behaviour, so he was taking it easy. Also being near water meant that there were fish, which made him drool. Lost in his thoughts, he barely noticed that the duo was walking towards a certain ship.

'Oh, here's the ship. Now, time for a small warmup.' were natsu's thoughts, as he cracked his knuckles.

"Who the hell are you?" A big mean-looking man spoke as he walked off what seemed to be a ship of moderate size..

"Your worst nightmare." The boy known for having a fiery personality replied.

"Don't make me laugh, brat!" Said the man, as he casually walked towards Natsu, and pushed him gently. The push never connected with the intended target, though.

Next thing he saw, was a fist in his face, as he blacked out. Last thing he heard was a loud thump. That was his body connecting with the solid ground.

"He knocked him out cold!" "Oh no, boss is down!" "He ain't that tough, he just got lucky!" One could hear the human traffickers shout, confused and slightly scared.

"He just got lucky!" A bulky person replied, with some of his friends stepping up, as well. In a matter of moments, they had the salamander surrounded.

In a couple of seconds though, they were all tied up with severe injuries.

**Several hours later**

Bora was annoyed. First off, he had to make sure the mage girl comes to his ship so that she does not leak any of the information out, because she might be suspicious of him. Having the magic council know about his activities was a thing he could not allow to happen. However, he relaxed slightly as he was approaching the harbor. As he walked a bit further down the dock heading for his ships, his thoughts were abruptly cut. His face was anything but calm and relaxed as he saw what was right in front of him.

The impostor couldn't believe the sight as his saw his men tied up, with a pink haired boy, the very same one he met in the town, sitting proudly in front of the tied up bunch.

"You- You did WHAT?" Bora was both angry, and confused. Mostly surprised, though. The very thought of this teen defeating those bulky men enraged him. For a second, he could see the bright blue sky, as a flaming fist connected with his chin. However, this was probably the last he would see of that very sky, at least for a while.

**A couple of minutes later**

'Alright, this has to be the place where he wants me to go. Man, I'm so excited about joining Fairy Tail!' Lucy thought. Despite the 'salamander' character seeming a little shady, she decided to overlook his shadiness. After all, he was supposedly the member of the fabled Fairy Tail!

However, her thoughts were abruptly stopped as he saw some magic council members take the impostor with them.

"B-but, he's Salamander!" She shouted, slowly realizing the situation.

"No. That would be me." The pink-haired boy grinned, with his cat flying in circles around his untraditionally coloured head.

"W-what? You're the boy from before! And this cat, just what is he?" Lucy was puzzled.

Then, she saw the tattoo on his right shoulder. It was clear now. The fragments had started to come together.

"This guy was running a massive human trafficking operation. He's been successful thus far, but he will be no more." The pink haired boy replied, whlist pointing in the direction of the main street. There, one could see a mass of women of all ages, mostly disappointed.

"Oh, and the cat-well, I don't know either what exactly he is." The fire mage continued.

"I'm a flying cat!" The blue feline exclaimed, extremely obvious.

'Woah, that's _hard to believe_, but whatever.' Lucy thought. "I see. So, can you take me to Fairy Tail?" She asked. Lucy was glad that in the end, everything was working out just fine.

"Sure!" The boy replied.

"That will be it. Thank you, salamander!" A man with a white robe and glasses said, waving his hand.

"It's nothing, Lahaar!" Natsu replied, waving in return.

'Whoa, I managed not to destroy the town this time,' Thought Natsu as he was pleased with the results, and walking away, 'and to meet Lahaar this early on. This will be of great help later on, or so I hope.' His face turned from skin colour to green as he boarded the train.

* * *

_**THIS CHAPTER HAD A MAJOR REWRITE 23/09/2013. Since it was a horribly written thing that you can't even call 'literature' and I had gotten better, I decided to change a few points here and there, and improve the writing style. Hope you enjoy. A couple of following chapters will be slightly improved, as well.**_

**Hey everybody, thanks for reading thus far. This is my first fanfic, and I've never written anything (a story) before.**

**It was largely inspired by Once Again by TheVictor, which is a great piece of work. In other words, I recommend you to read it, if you already haven't.**

**I will be trying to update as soon as possible, but since I'll be having school soon the progress might slow down starting next week. I still will try to keep this up, at least until the story catches up with the manga.**


	2. Chapter 2

**DICLAIMER: I don't own Fairy Tail, obviously. Hiro Mashima does.**

* * *

They were on their way back to the guild. Lucy was very excited to become a part of the guild she always wanted to join: Fairy Tail!

It was Natsu who broke the silence.

"So, uhm Lucy. What kind of magic do you use?" He asked despite knowing the answer and trying to hold his vomit in. The train trip wasn't by no means pleasant, especially with his face shifting colours all the time.

"It's called celestial spirit magic. I can summon spirits from the celestial spirit plane!" She answered, "And since you're the great salamander, I presume you use fire magic?"

"Fire dragon magic. I can eat fire!" The pink-haired teenager said, "But it gave me a very bad case of -BLERGH- motion sickness." He explained with his head out of the window and his sparkly stuff falling down onto the road.

Happy giggled at that, suddenly remembering the old times with Gildarts, where Natsu was being thrown around. The throwing around part he enjoyed the least, as even this kind of motion got him sick quite often.

**At the guild hall**

The guild was as lively as ever. Cana was drowning in a never-ending supply of booze, Elfman mumbling something about "MEN" while others were just sitting there, enjoying the 'scenery'. Not to mention Mira filling up barrels of booze, out of which the guild was about to run out thanks to the fact that Cana didn't really see a big difference between water and alcohol.

"Oh, but if it isn't Natsu!" Some random person pointed at the door, the trio gaining everyone's attention.

"Hey, everybody!" He exclaimed, already looking in the direction of the ice mage, hoping to test out his strength. 'The time will surely come.' He thought.

The guild went silent as everybody stared at the door, wide-eyed. It wasn't so often they saw Natsu in the company of a girl, especially ever since Lisanna died. The blonde-haired celestial wizard felt a bit uneasy, and embarrassed. So that was it, Fairy Tail! The guild she had wanted to join. It was now, or never!

"We've got a new recruit!" Natsu shouted. Everything was going nicely according to plan. 'Since when did I become such a control freak?' he thought as he sat by a table.

He turned around, only to find Lucy admiring Mirajane, while she was giggling, but probably happy that she has fans. After all, who doesen't like fans?

"Yo, fire-lizard!" An almost naked teenager shouted, his fiery altitude being quite unusual for an ice wizard.

"What was that, ice-pants?" Natsu replied annoyedly, but playfully, fueling the flame.

"I'm gonna kick your ass for no reason!" Gray shouted again, putting his fists in battle position.

"You really wanna go at it?" Natsu asked again, standing up.

Gray smirked.

"What did you just say? Of course I wanna go at it!" Gray shouted as he charged. After all, being without anyone to pick a fight with at the guild for half a week certainly was no fun.

Natsu blocked the jab with his arm, while doing a side kick. Gray had never seen Natsu use such techniques before in a fight that didn't involve magic, so inevitably, he got hit while he could've avoided it. He didn't back down though, as he punched some more, with his opponent either countering or dodging.

"You're really pissing me off. Ice-make: Lance!" The naked black-haired teen shouted as a long ice lance appeared, and headed towards it's target, none other than the fire mage.

'He's making a grave mistake going for me with magic. A much graver mistake than without any. That's right, the _gravest_ of mistakes.' Natsu thought, while preparing for his next move.

"Fire dragon's claws!" One could hear him shout, as he put his hands in front of himself. They radiated immense heat, melting the lance as it neared his palms. In the end, even what was left of the lance on the floor evaporated in a matter of seconds.

"This isn't fair! I refuse to lose to the likes of you!" Gray shouted. "Want a rematch?" He asked.

"Nah, not this time. Got important business, you know." Natsu replied as he was going to introduce Lucy to the guild.

"Hmpf. Alright. It isn't like you to pass this up though-" Gray was cut off, as a drunk Elfman, after losing a drinking competition with Cana, and after waking up threw Jet at him. Gray got mad at Jet, and more and more people joined the brawl. Except Natsu, who sat next to Lucy.

"Do they fight always like this?" Lucy asked with a worried face.

"Yep. They do it less when I'm not around though." Was Natsu's reply. It seemed that things were going smoothly, and he was leaving a nice first impression.

"Stop this at once, brats!" What appeared to be a giant shouted in a very deep voice. He was a huge, bulky figure that was about as big as the size of the quite large guild hall, but something told Lucy that this wasn't his limit. She was amazed at the incredible size of the old man.

"Anyway, what might be your name, lovely lady?" Said the man as he srunk down to nearly a midget-size, shocking Lucy.

"I'm - I'm uh, Lucy!" She said nervously, "I want to join Fairy Tail!" she continued. This was the moment she had been awaiting!

-pat- -pat- The midget's hands touched something they shouldn't have touched. "Uh-huh, body seems to have the right proportions-" He was cut off as Lucy punched him in the face, further increasing his nosebleed. "You perverted old man!"

Natsu just stood there, laughing at his master's pervertedness. Despite that little attribute, he knew the old man was a nice person at heart, and was willing to go to great lengths to save his pupils, and guild members. After all, Fairy Tail was as much family for him, as for most of it's member.

A couple of minutes later, Lucy seemed to be enjoying a friendly chit-chat with Mirajane, while getting her guild mark.

"Where would you like it?" She asked, holding what seemed to be a magical stamp in her hand. It resembled a normal stamp, but had a faint, sparkly glow, instantly making it obvious that it was magic.

"On the back of my right hand, please. Oh, and I'd like it pink!" She replied cheerfully, as the stamp approached her hand, and voila - she had her very own symbol of Fairy Tail on quite a visible spot.

After Lucy got her guild mark, Natsu already knew what to do next. Since Lucy didn't have to do any summoning in Hargeon, he wanted her to handle the Vulcan problem on her own.

"Oi, old man! Where's Macao?" The pink-haired fire mage asked his master, despite already knowing the answer.

"He went to pick that Vulcan job on mount Hocabe." Was the reply.

"Lucy, pack your things. I want to see how you fare in combat. Take it as your first job with the guild." Natsu said, with a determined look. There was no way he'd let the old man down just like that.

"My first job? Yay!" Lucy replied excitedly, oblivious to the terrible weather that awaited her. Words "mountain" and "vulcan" associated with a volcano, so she thought it was going to be warm. Giving it a thought, she grabbed some of her lightest clothing. That was a terrible mistake.

She was freezing. What she did not expect is that the job was going to take place in a snowstorm.

"Gate of the clock: Horologium!" She said as she summoned the celestial spirit, and hid inside it.

"This is much better, she says happily." A medium-sized creature, resembling a longcase clock, only with legs and hands, spoke.

'Horologium, eh? Thanks for that one time. Don't know if you remember it or not, though. Something tells me you do.' Natsu thought. He knew a thing or two about celestial spirit, one was that if the time had passed, or even rewinded in the world, it was a different story altogether in the celestial spirits' realm.

'I do. Celestial spirits exist outside of this time and space. And no problem. It was the least I could do, transporting you back in time, after all you had done for me.' Horologium relayed his thoughts back.

'Zeref had his mind set on annihilation. Who would've known that rejecting the world meant that!' The pink-haired boy replied, staring at the clock spirit for another moment, before turning away and continuing his path up the mountain.

'What was that about?' Lucy thought as she got comfortable inside her fellow spirit.

They continued until they found a small cave. It was a typical cliffside cave like any other, with the exception of being extra slippery due to an incredibly thick layer of ice. Inside, there was as hairy gorilla, that would seem to be a rather perverted creature no matter how you look at it.

"Lucy, I want you to take care of this one personally. It wouldn't be fun for me to fight it, as it's pretty weak. I'll get to see how strong you are, too." Natsu said, despite knowing her skills.

"Alright, I'll try my best." She answered as it was the time to go back for the clock.

"Don't kill him as my guildmate is posessed by the beast." He continued, but suddenly slipped, and before he even managed to say "Oh shit!" He instantly got motionsick and was rolling downhill, with the blue feline following him.

'Guess it really is up to me alone.' Lucy facepalmed.

She took a closer look at the dirty gorilla, and she proceeded to summon the even more perverted Taurus.

"I'll go past any obstacles, including a big cow with an axe to get this woman!" Said the monkey, focusing on the word "woman".

"NICE BODY!" Was the first thing the oversized cow said, while doing the cheesy noodle dance. The bull was apparently very happy at Lucy's inconvenient choice of clothes.

"Yeah, whatever. Just take care of this clown!" Lucy facepalmed, commanding the spirit to battle.

"For your nice boobs, I'll do anything. MOO!" Taurus shouted as he charged at the ape in what appeared to be his rage.

It was a somewhat even battle, but the cow seemed to be getting the upper hand. Shortly, remembering how Lucy didn't need to harm the ape, Taurus simply attempted to hit him with the blunt edge of his blade. The ape did not see that coming, and got knocked out in almost an instant.

"That should take care of it. Now about my _reward_-" -poof- the Bull disappeared, as Lucy sweat dropped.

About at the same time, Natsu came back up the hill, slightly swaying due to his motion sickness. He may be nearly omniscient in terms of events to come, but there are some things even he can't foresee.

"Natsu doesen't like rolling down icy slopes!" The cat exclaimed.

"Oh, so you... took care... of him." Was what Natsu said.

"In no way thanks to you." Was the reply. However, despite of the tone of her message, she was actually proud of taking care of her very first enemy.

"This was supposed to be your job, anyway. Remember?" Natsu reminded her.

"Yeah, right. Whatever."

Lucy looked at the ape again, only to find a middle aged man lying on the icy floor of the cavern. He didn't look too good, and seemed to have quite several nasty wounds.

"We need to help him. He's the guy who got posessed." Natsu explained as he walked towards him, and applied fire to the wound.

"N-natsu, happy?" Macao said as he slowly opened his eyes. At first everything was blurry, with the exception of a blue paw that was sticking in his eye. With his other eye, however, he saw Natsu, who was now standing up.

"Thank you!" Was all he managed to say.

"You should thank this girl instead." Natsu said as he pointed at Lucy, who was still slightly shy.

"Thank you very much." The man smiled.

"UH, no problem!" Lucy replied happily.

"We've got to head back to the guild now - oh shii-" Natsu didn't finish as he slipped and started rolling down the slope, with happy following him, again.

**Elsewhere**

The magic council was gathered. They were standing in a circle, with a magic circle beneath everyone's feet, forming a circlesception.

"It's quite rare for a Fairy Tail mage to capture a criminal, and not only that, leave the town completely unharmed." An old man spoke.

"See, councilman? I always said they would be somewhat useful." A blue haired man with a dark tattoo on his right cheek replied.

"They've done a lot of property damage in other places, though." Another man said.

"I still think their good deed outweigh their carelessness." Explained a young woman, smiling. Despite her expression, there seemed to be something evil about her.

"We'll see." The blue haired man said calmly. He felt like he was in control of the situation, and definitely wasn't going to let anyone tell him otherwise.

**At the guild**

"Everybody, we're back!" Natsu shouted as he entered the guild. In front of him he saw the usual scene develop: Cana gulping down barrels of booze as if it was water, fights breaking out, and all that stuff.

"Welcome back, you guys!" Mira exclaimed while serving drinks to some members who were sitting by a table.

"Oi, old man, did you get your ass kicked again?" Asked Wakaba with a smirk on his face. His expression was saying "I'm so going to piss you off, no matter whether you like it or not."

"I'm not an old man!" Macao replied, but he suddenly noticed a boy sitting on the chair next to the master. The boy was quite young, and had straight dark hair.

"Father!" The boy was surprised, but happy to see his dad back.

"Romeo!" Macao felt just as happy, if not more.

"I want to become a mage, just like you, dad!" Romeo said. Indeed, it was an incredibly dramatic family reunion that everyone looked at, and felt warm and fuzzy inside.

"Fine by me." Macao replied, having taking a liking to the idea of his son becoming a mage, just like him.

'Maybe it's finally the time to talk to master.' Natsu thought. He was trying to consider every option that was available to him, and whether he should tell Makarov about what he knows, or not.

'Nah, it's still way too early.' He thought once again, as turned to face his cat.

"Natsu, there's a fish discount in a local WalMage store!" Happy exclaimed, his eyes having turned into dark figures of fish. Or were those eyes of a predator who knows he's going to get his prey? Either way, happy showed great excitement towards a simple disocunt.

"Oh, a fish discount?" Natsu asked, "I was getting hungry anyway, let's go!" He continued.

Lucy rented a room for 70000 jewels a month, the very same one Natsu used to, and probably will again sneak into every day through the window. Just for fun. Or is that it?

The guild's activities continued as he walked off to the shop with Happy, and Lucy started unpacking her bags, and writing a letter to her deceased mom.

The day came to a close. Tomorrow was going to be important, and Natsu knew it. He wouldn't be able to rest properly for a couple of weeks now, more or less depending on how things turned out.

* * *

**__****THIS CHAPTER HAD A MAJOR REWRITE 23/09/2013. I still need to improve a couple more chapters after this one, so I'll continue tomorrow. I also catched a cold, so no school for me for a couple of days. This is very beneficial, as I'll have more time to write.**

**Thanks for reading yet another chapter! My first thought was not to make Natsu too mary-sueish, and mainly focus on his slightly different personality. Revelation of his power will come in the next chapter/chapters.**

**Also, treeofsakuras, thanks for the first review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**DICLAIMER: I don't own Fairy Tail. It's the property of Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

It dawned on Magnolia, as the townspeople slowly began to wake up. Lucy was one of those people, but the sight she saw as she opened her eyes was rather unorthodox. The incredible amounts of rage she emitted as she saw Happy sharpening his claws against her wall and Natsu soaring through her private papers, could only be compared to Erza's "scary face".

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE?" She screamed furiously, about to throw both of them out of the window.

'Ah, the old good times.' Natsu thought. "We're invading your privacy." the fire mage replied uninterested, while reading yet another private letter, "Anyway, want to go on a job?" He asked happily, a job poster hidden behind his back.

"You two came through the window. That is an invasion of my privacy. You realized that." Lucy said, beginning to glow red. While she wasn't a fire mage, she was definitely on fire at that very moment, despite her gaze being the icy type of gaze that can kill anyone simply by looking.

"I was bored." Said Natsu bluntly, while reading another letter in a stack, his eyes innocent and oblivious to the threat that was right in front of him.

"You sure-om-have a lot of fish in your om-nom-nom freezer." One could hear Happy say, as he finished sharpening his claws and was digesting the fish in Lucy's freezer. Before Lucy could do something incredibly violent, she heard Natsu interrupt quickly:

"The guy who's targeted in this job has a golden gate key!" He said quickly, in an attempt to avoid the possible damages to himself and his cat. Not only that, but he knew how far Lucy would go just to get a new golden key.

"A golden gate key?" Her eyes were certainly shining. It seemed as if the rage disappeared rather quickly and was replaced with what seemed to be a glimmer of hope, and excitement.

"Yep. So do you want to come or not?" He asked again, revealing the job poster behind his back.

**Several hours later**

"Natsu, you don't look the sneaky type. Why come through the window?" Lucy asked, crouching next to him

"I just think ninjas are cool." Was his answer, as he patiently melted the glass.

"But we've just got to destroy one book." Lucy answered. "Is it really worth it?"

"We'll see soon enough." Natsu replied calmly, as he climbed in through the now-melted window, with the blue feline and Lucy following him.

Once inside, he headed straight for the library, knowing where it was. Two grinning characters stood there, trying to act professional, although they weren't really expecting anyone to come.

"We're from the southern wolves mercenary guild. You stand no chance against us!" They said proudly, as one of them started swinging a huge, iron frying pan at Natsu.

Natsu simply lifted his hand to meet the impact, and the frying pan was fried.

"H-he fried the... frying pan?" One of them asked, in complete and total confusion.

"That's fryesception!" The other one said, staring at what now was a pile of ashes lying on the ground.

"It was supposed to absorb fire magic!" The one that had the frying pan replied, confused as well.

"It probably won't any more." Natsu said calmly, as there was nothing left of the frying pan anymore.

"In addition, I do not feel the necessity to waste any more of my power on you two." He said while slamming their heads together, producing a loud "CLANG" as the two mercenaries fell on the floor.

"You got them good!" Happy cheered, while Lucy was already looking for the book, "Dawnbreak".

"Here it is!" She exclaimed "But wait, the author is quite a recognized writer, why would somebody want that book burned. At least we'll have to read it before we destroy it." She continued with a puzzled expression.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Natsu said with a bored expression. 'He should show up any moment now.' He thought. The fat duke always pissed him off, and this was the second time he'd get to kick his ass. Next moment, one could see a fat man literally rise up from the ground, right next to one of his fellow maids that apparently had come with him.

"I've no idea why you would like to do anything with that stupid book, but it's my property and I won't let anyone take it!" Shouted Duke Everloo, taking extra pride in the fact that he considered pretty much anything his property.

"Shut up, you fat prick!" Natsu shouted, while punching the largest of the gorilla-looking maids that got in his way, which suddenly disappeared.

"I will not let you go that easily!" Everloo exclamed, oblivious to the fact that the huge gorilla-y maid just got beaten by a relatively small teenager as he was preparing to attack.

"You're no match for me." Natsu replied calmly. "And now, time to end this!"

"Fire Dragon's... Fist!" Natsu charged at the duke, who was paralyzed due to amount of magic power the pink-haired boy was releasing. That was his grave mistake though, as next moment he was flying through the wall, with severe external injuries.

"For some reason, it seems that you're a lot stronger than you were a couple of days ago, Natsu. What the hell happened?" The blue feline wondered.

"Come on, the duke wasn't strong. It doesen't take a lot to take one like him down." Natsu lied.

'I will eventually tell him anyway. It's too early now, though.' the fire mage thought. He was starting to get a taste of what was his strength like in comparison to others.

"I finished reading it! Sorry Natsu, but we can't burn it yet." Lucy said, as she removed the magical "Speed reading" glasses.

"Alright, we need to head back to our clients anyway." Natsu spoke, as he picked up the key that materialized on the spot where the large gorilla-maid was beaten and gave it to Lucy.

**Some time later**

"What do you mean you don't have the money to pay us back?" One could hear the blond haired mage shout. She went through all this trouble, yet now, it didn't look like **  
**

"It's not like you burned the book anyway." Kaby Melon, one of the cilents replied. He was not sure what to say, because the whole situation was rather difficult to understand.

"Your father never intended for you to burn the book, guy with a tasty name." Natsu said as he handed him the very book Kaby wanted to see burned.

"How do you know-" Before he could continue, the book began moving and words were rearranging. The title "Daybreak" rearranged itself into "Dear Kaby". Needless to say, both he and his wife were shocked. It didn't change the fact that they never had anything to pay to begin with.

"Whatever, I think we should get back to the guild." Natsu said. "After all, you did get the key, didn't you?"

"Aye aye, to the guild!" The flying blue cat replied, hoping to eat something on the way there. He hadn't eaten anything ever since they left Lucy's place, and even there it was just a couple of fishes from her freezer.

"Duh, whatever. I'll need to form the contract with this new golden gate key. Virgo, is it not?" Lucy asked as they were heading back. She was too happy to notice a very obvious thing: how did Natsu manage to know that there was a golden gate key?

**The same evening, at Lucy's apartment**

'I still have to form a contract with my new spirits, Nikola and Virgo.' Lucy thought as she picked her keys, while futilely trying to stop Natsu's attempts of climbing in through the window.

"Have you heard the news? Erza's coming back tomorrow!" Natsu said, happily as ever, mostly at the fact that in the end, he did manage to climb through the window. The phrase made Happy shiver with fear, though.

"She does sound like a scary person." thought Lucy out loud while imagining a huge fire-breathing giant woman who was scaring townspeople away while stepping on buildings, crushing them beneath her feet. The contracts done, she was thinking of a name for the small blue spirit, that despite being "Nikola" a spirit of Canis Minor, resembled anything but a dog. In addition to that, it produced strange, but oddly cute sounds.

"You should call it Plue!" Natsu offered. He couldn't think of anything else but its' old name.

"That does seem to make sense, and it kind of goes along with the noises he makes." Lucy replied. The odd celestial spirit seemed to be content with the new name he was given, as he waved around his hands happily. Happy found him to be rather cute, as well, as the two seemed to get along nicely.

* * *

_**THIS CHAPTER HAD A REWRITE 24/09/2013. I think I need to rewrite a couple more chapters, then I'll move on to writing chapter 8.**_

**Sorry guys, but I had to make this chapter shorter than usual as I was in a hurry. As always, reviews are appreciated. I promise though, next chapter will definitely be longer!**


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.**

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A new day was dawning, Lucy, Happy and Natsu were already on their way to the guild.

"Have you heard the rumours? They say Erza's coming back!" "No way!" One could hear the guild members talk.

'Yes, this is the day.' Natsu thought. 'It's finally the time to take down those Eisenwald clowns'

"Hey, what a rare sight! Natsu's thinking about something!" Gray shouted, obviously picking a fight, while some other members sweat dropped.

"Wanna go at it, master of strip-magic?" Natsu replied, obviosuly annoyed, while most other people were simply amused.

"'course I do!" Gray answered, happy that Natsu finally accepted the challenge. This time though, his ice simply melted as he was approaching the pink-haired boy.

"The hell?" Ice mage was confused.

"You're no match for me anymore." Natsu simply replied. He knew he might have been going a bit overboard and revealing things too early, but he was sure he could keep his secret for a while longer, at least until he met a stronger opponent.

"What was that stupid trick?" The black haired stripper was obviously displeased.

"Not now." Natsu replied as he pointed at the door. Gray just stood there, confused, until he realized what he was pointing at.

"I must say I'm pleased. You two are not fighting this time." A teenage red-haired girl in steel armor said as she carried a huge monster scale with her.

"Right. I can see you want to talk to us." Natsu replied fast. Maybe this was his chance to change his reputation in the guild slightly.

"I need you two with me." She said as she pointed at Gray and Natsu, "I need to deal with a certain dark guild."

"Rumours say it Eisenwald is on the move, could that be related to it?" Natsu replied, knowing the answer.

"Indeed it is. It also seems you've changed a bit since I've left." Erza was a bit surprised.

"Oh, really? Whatever." The fire mage said, trying to sound uninterested.

**A bit later, on the train.**

"Alright, here's the deal:" Erza was interrupted as Natsu made suspicious sounds, trying to hold his vomit in.

"I see you're not feeling well Natsu. Come here." She said softly as he patted the seat next to her. Then, she hit him in the stomach with her iron glove, in hopes of knocking him out and making him sleep, but that did not do anything. She was surprised. Natsu had no other choice but to vomit out of the window, right while the train was passing over a river. The fisherman down below probably had a very bad day. In the end, Erza managed to knock the fire-head out.

"You liiiike him!" Happy giggled as he recieved a strong punch to the face, that would've probably had sent him flying had he not been a flying cat in the first place.

"Okay, so here's the deal: Their leader, "shinigami" Erigor wants to get his hands on Lullaby, a magical flute created by Zeref himself." Erza explained.

"We must not be too late to stop him, thus, we must hurry." Erza continued.

"I didn't sign up to save the world, master just recommended me to come along to get some combat experience." Lucy whined.

"The more people we have, the better. I can't take a whole guild on alone. Which is why I brought you guys." Erza explained again.

"For now, let's kick back and enjoy the ride, at least until Natsu wakes up." she continued.

**On the Onibas station.**

'It feels as if somebody's missing.' The scarlet-haired swordswoman thought. 'Oh crap, Natsu!'

At the same time, Natsu woke up and tried control his motion sickness. A dark-haired man came up to him, noticing the tattoo on his shoulder, and insulting him and the rest of legal guilds, calling them "flies".

'Kageyama' Natsu thought.

With all his strength (which was greatly reduced as he was on a moving vehicle) he grabbed him, and jumped out through the window. He sighed in relief as he noticed that Lullaby, the flute was still with him.'

"Your little plan is going to fail. Erigor isn't going anywhere near the guildmasters' conference." Natsu spoke in a calm tone.

"How do you know?" Kageyama showed signs of being somewhat terrified.

"I won't tell you." Natsu said as he was cracking his knuckles. He knew this isn't going to be fitting for a warmup, much less a challenge, so he thought he has every reason to be intimidating. And oh, he was.

"I-I won't let you take the flute!" The dark mage replied, "You legal guild flies stand no chance against us!"

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" Natsu cast the spell. Kageyama was knocked out in an instant, and Natsu picked the flute up.

About the same time, the rest of them catched up with him, as he handed over the flute to Erza.

"You-you were actually being useful and responsible?" She was obviously shocked, as was Gray.

"I just kicked that guy's ass, and he dropped this." Natsu replied, showing everybody the demonic flute.

"As I expected, pure luck." Erza was both disappointed and relieved, and they headed back towards Onibas, with some extra time that Natsu acquired by beating Kageyama. Speaking of which, he was just opening his eyes, as he tried to stand up. Barely managing to do so, he noticed the flute was gone, and he had several injuries. Needless to mention, he was afraid for his life, since the last thing Erigor would do is tolerate weaklings in his guild. Depressed, he was found by some magic council troops who grabbed him away.

"We made it in time." Erza said, "keep the flute, Natsu."

"Sure." He replied as he was being dragged by Lucy, still motionsick. Altough he didn't consider Lucy a vehicle, his head was still going in circles, as he was fighting it to regain composure.

"Eisenwald, today you go down!" Erza shouted. The guild members were unimpressed, most were laughing.

"Re-quip! Heaven's wheel armour! Blumenblatt!" That said, several blades were sent flying and struck the guild's members.

"Wait, could she be?" "Erza Titania? Impossible!" The dark guild's members became slightly nervous.

"I've got no time for the likes of you." Erigor said egoistically, as he tried to fly away. However, he was stopped as he noticed something in Natsu's hand, who now completely regained his composure.

"You-how did you get it?" He asked, being somewhat surprised.

"Oh, there was some shadow guy, so I took it from him, incredibly violently. I was considering shoving this flute up his ass as well, but I've got a better target now." Natsu said, pointing at Erigor.

"You... Dare say such things to ME?" The dark guild master was enraged now, as all of Fairy Tail's team smirked at the statement.

Natsu dodged the incredible wind blast that came at him.

"No matter how hard you try, I'll kick your ass!" Natsu shouted again.

"Storm Bringer!" Erigor shouted, expecting to pull Natsu off his feet, and then attack. Natsu, however, took the hit, and didn't seem to move.

Both Fairy Tail and Eisenwald members were surprised, as Gray began to think of Erigor as a rather weak person.

"I can't let you have all the glory, Natsu!" He exclaimed, only to be pushed away and sent flying into a nearby wall by a swift blast of wind.

"Now then. How would you like your ass delivered to you?" Natsu questioned Erigor's preferences.

"As if that's gonna happen!" Erigor charged with his scythe. Then, Natsu grabbed the scythe, and tried increasing the heat to melt it. It worked.

"He melted boss' scythe!" "Boss is going to be really mad now!" Some of the guild members panicked.

Surprisingly, they didn't fight each other, they merely looked at how the fight might turn out. Eisenwald members couldn't believe what they were seeing, Fairy Tail on the other hand always knew not to underestimate Natsu.

"What about we take this fight elsewhere?" Natsu asked.

"Sure. While we're at it, I want you guys to annihilate those fairy flies!" Erigor turned to his fellow members. "You better do." He said in a sinister voice.

"Right, we will not fail you!" The other guild members said, slightly shaken.

Team fairy tail entered battle formation as Shinigami and the Salamander went outside.

"I'm somewhat fired up!" Natsu shouted.

"You're way too arrogant for your own good." Erigor replied. "For I have not shown you my true strength yet."

The battle began.

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**There goes chapter 4! Thanks for reading! And speaking of romance, I probably won't include any, much less a harem. Because it's really difficult to write in my opinion, and I'm a beginner. Romance can also screw up a story pretty well, and I'm intending to make this one somewhat canon. Maybe later, but no. Not now.**


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER: I own Fairy Tail... *angry lawyers appear* okay, okay, just kidding.**

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"Gray, you take on those on the left and that shadow guy!" Erza ordered, as she was preparing to attack, "I will take on Ryule!"

The fighting began. Ryule did not pose much of a challenge, while Gray easily managed to overcome the brutes.

Outside, Natsu was preparing for battle, altough the opponent was clearly inferior. Well, he now was, as Natsu was much stronger than he had been in that timeline.

"Taking the fight outside, huh?" Erigor asked.

"I just like the fresh air more." Natsu replied 'I can't let others see how strong I am yet' he thought.

"Since you ain't shabby, I'll go all out. Still, you're no challenge for me!" Erigor shouted. "MAGIC WIND PALM"! He covered his hands in spiraling currents of wind, clapping them together and then running towards Natsu, his fingers slightly bent.

"That won't work!" Natsu said as he dodged it.

"You're annoying me, bastard. I'll finish you off right now." Erigor replied. "Emera Baram!"

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The two attacks collided, but the fire seemed to advance and ignore Erigor's attack, wiping off his ever-confident smirk, before sending him flying.

"He sure is weak!" Happy exclaimed happily, not quite understanding the power his pink-haired friend had gained.

"Oh right, the flute." As he said that, it began growing in size, until it became a gigantic three-eyed wooden monster capable of firing lazors out of every hole it has.

"You bastard! I'll never forget how you told him you'd shove me up his ass!" The angry flute demon said, about to unleash it's deadly lasers.

"Do you even have one?" Happy was confused.

"Why don't you check!" The demon exclaimed as he turned his back to the two mages and started charging lasers from his anus. Both of them easily dodged it, but the wooden abomination wasn't done yet.

"WAHH! TREMBLE IN FEAR AS I KILL EVERYONE IN OVER 9000M RADIUS!" The flute said, charging it's ultimate attack, the lullaby tune.

'This is unexpected. I need to stop him before he plays the death tune' the fire mage thought as he hit the demon in several parts, causing more holes to appear, rendering it unable to fulfill it's main purpose. How can a flute be used if it's got holes in the wrong places? Now all he needed was taking care of it.

"Woahh, so that's its true form!" Erza, who just left the building said.

'Oh, Erza and the others are finally here. Seems I've got to take it down a notch.' Natsu thought.

"Even if I can't play the tune, you're still as good as dead! MWAHAHAHAHA!" The demon shouted as he prepared to fire another barrage of lasers. In the end though, it was defeated by a combined attack of Natsu, Gray and Erza, and fell apart. As it died, a huge explosion ensued and in the place it once stood there was now a very deep hole.

The actions, once again, did not go by unnoticed by the Magic Council, as their encounter was the new hot topic. No only that, but also increased activity of the dark guilds recently, which they deem problematic, as well.

**The Councilors' meeting**

"Well, I say we should be grateful to them. Think about what could've happened to the guild masters, if Erigor hadn't been stopped and used lullaby in Clover." A man with a tattoo on his right eye and blue hair said.

"In addition, it would've been our responsibilities." A woman with a magic crystal ball in her hand said.

"SO WHAT? They are destructive bastards, and they've gotta pay for it! I'm not accepting the idea of our council having been unable to do anything!" Another member shouted angrily. Some had shown signs of agreeing, some not.

"Uhm, It seems there has been minimal property damage this time. Only inside the station." A short old man replied.

"Still. Erigor got away, and thus we can't use him to convince public everything's safe now. I say we make one of the fairies responsible." Another member replied.

"If you put it that way, I think we need to have a small talk with them indeed." The blue-haired man replied.

**Back in Magnolia**

'I'll probably be able to get a little rest before they come for her. Or now that it's different, me.' Natsu thought as he was approaching the town, and recovering from the train ride.

'Nah, Jellal probably wants to see her personally. He can do that for all I care.' He continued his thoughts as he stopped in front of the guild.

"Everybody, we're back!" He shouted cheerfully as he kicked the guild doors open. The usual cheering, brawls, and drinking began. It was abruptly cut as Erza was taken by a council member that looks like a frog. Natsu knew better than try and get her back, especially with what he did last time. Breaking into the courtroom with a terribly made fake Erza armor and a crappy red wig resulted in him being locked up for the night, as well. Now that he thought of it, he didn't mind spending the night in the same cell with the scarlet-haired girl, especially now that he wasn't afraid of her. Still, he knew it'd be right not to interfere. He knew well that it's best to use the time to talk to the master, instead.

"Gramps, can we talk privately about something important?" Natsu asked.

"Uh, sure -hic-" the drunk master replied.

And then he told him. About how he was from the future, how his power level was just slightly below nine thousand, how he'd been sent back by a celestial spirit, and so on. Master's reaction couldn't be more surprising, but he finally saw the pieces come together: Natsu's strange behaviour, etc. As natsu went back to the guild hall, its doors opened and a mysterious figure in a suspicious ninja cosplay costume entered, while everyone fell into deep slumber. Everyone, except master Makarov, Natsu and Laxus, who was just watching from the upper floor.

"I'm surprised you're not asleep, Natsu. You seem to be getting stronger." Mystogan said, no longer shrouded by the mysterious fog of eerieness that made the atmosphere all the more mysterious.

"It's not that-" the pink-haired boy replied, scratching the back of his head. 'Play it cool. I can't let Mystogan in on it just yet. Or should I say, Jellal.' the fire dragon mage thought. Without saying a word, the mysterious shinobi just picked a job from the list, and disappeared into the fog as he made his exit.

"Uh.. was that Mystogan?" Gray was the first one to wake up, rubbing his eyes.

"No kidding! He's said to be one of the strongest members of the guild!" Wakaba said, also waking up.

"Muhaha! You are obviously misunderstanding something. It is I, who is the strongest!" Laxus said while egoistically pointing at himself.

"Your ego is as big as the Tower of Heaven!" Natsu replied, making master smirk, and others wonder what he meant by that.

"I'm surprised that you brat didn't fall asleep when he came." Laxus said.

"WHAAAT?" Gray was surprised, and a bit jealous. Lucy, however didn't know what was going on, as Mira explained about Mystogan being incredibly powerful and whatnot.

Happy was surprised as well, because Natsu usually fell asleep just like the rest of them. His mind was on fish though, so he wasn't considering that something could possibly be wrong.

**At Lucy's apartment, later that evening**

"Hey Lucy, want to take a job?" Natsu asked while holding a poster which seemed to have a huge letter "S" plastered to it.

"I don't know about that... AND WHAT'S WITH SNEAKING IN THROUGH THE WINDOW?" She screamed, obviously annoyed by the fact they invaded her privacy, once again.

"I think it's just amusing to see your reaction." "Aye" The two fairy tail mages replied, so innocently that made Lucy even more annoyed.

"I'm not going anywhere. Sorry." She said, still angry about the incident.

"So you don't want the golden gate key?" Natsu said, sounding malicious.

"LET'S GO!" Lucy was suddenly full of energy, as they went towards the harbour.

"Aye sir!" Was Happy's reply.

* * *

**Hey guys, sorry for the long wait, thanks for reading another chapter! Here begins the Galuna Island arc. The reason Natsu's been taking fights easy is because the first challenge is going to be Jellal, and I'm not going to have Natsu eat the Etherion. He is almost omniscient in terms of events to come, but should he do a major change, he'll lose his foresight. Not sure if I intend him to do that though. Also, thanks for another review! ****This chapter was a bit hard to write, next one should be a bit easier though. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: the more time passes, the more I doubt about the usefulness of this disclaimer thingy. I mean, if I'm a fanfiction writer, then it should be pretty obvious I don't own the stuff I write about, right?**

* * *

"Master, a request on the second floor is missing!" Said a worried Mira, as she was cleaning yet another glass of sake.

"What? Missing?" Was master's confused reaction. It's not every day somebody takes a request they're not supposed to be able to handle, and it seemed like this was the case. It was then, that he started remembering the conversation he had with Natsu, and he was still a bit shocked. His face, however, gained a calmer expression.

"Which request was it?" He asked, despite knowing the answer.

"The island curse one!" Mirajane replied, now drying the glass she had been cleaning. Some other guild members noticed the ongoing conversation, as well.

"Who would've.." Jet's speech was cut off as he saw a certain blonde haired person stand above him, on the floor from which the request was stolen.

"I just saw a cat fly out, that's it." Laxus said with an ever-egoistic smirk on his face. He was a bit suspicious of Natsu, but he still believed he wouldn't really be able to interfere with his future plans.

"Damn that brat!" Master swore, trying to act as realistic as possible. Somehow, he succeeded.

"Hey Gray!" He shouted, knowing exactly what he had to do.

"What is it again?" The almost-naked teenager replied, only to be cut off by Cana, who just noticed his lack of clothes. "Shit, my shirt!" he screamed about to run off, only to be caught by Master's stretching hand.

"I want you to go to Hargeon and take Natsu back. He may be strong, but he's not a fully qualified S-class mage just yet." The short old man replied, despite knowing that there's no way Gray can succeed at dicouraging Natsu from doing something. Not only that, but he also knew what was going to happen, and keeping things the way they were supposed to be seemed like a nice idea to him, at least for now.

"Whatever, I'll bring them back." He replied, while grabbing the coat he finally found, only to rid himself of it shortly afterwards, as he walked off.

Several hours later, Erza came back from the magic council. Things didn't exactly go pleasantly, but at least she got away without any sort of punishment or imprisonment. Still, the blue haired man's face reminded her of someone, and thus she wasn't feeling too well. As she stepped inside the guild hall, Master had to talk to her.

**In** **Hargeon **

"Are you sure this is a good idea? After all, we are breaking the guild rules, and that's not something I want to do just after I join!" A worried Lucy sighed as she was nearing the harbour. The reward seemed very attractive - plenty of money and a golden gate key, but she was still a bit worried. First, stealing the S-class quest. S-class is supposed to be very difficult, right? Then, spending the trip on the boat with the ever - motion sick Natsu. She got herself together and suddenly felt motivated, as she imagined a wonderful, sparkling golden key in front of her. Her thoughts were abruptly cut off by another voice, one that belonged to the Ice Mage.

"That's right, you're not supposed to go there! Now just come back nicely or master will punish us." He said, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.

"You're naked." Natsu replied. This distracted Gray immensely, and while he was looking for his clothes, he was knocked out and tied up.

"I'm sorry, did I hear you say you were going to Galuna island?" The trio consisting of two wizards and a cat heard an elderly voice say.

"Indeed. We're mages from Fairy Tail!" Lucy replied, excitement visible in her eyes. The sailors, however seemed to back off from the small team of magicians, trembling in fear. Only one stood steady. Natsu recognized him almost immediately.

"Will you take us there, and what's your name?" He turned to face the last sailor, who seemed to be a middle-aged man with a green cape, which was partially hiding his left arm.

"Yes. I must warn you though, it is cursed!" He said, as he removed the cape, revealing a dark, bizarre arm that did not look like it belonged to any human.

"W-where the hell am I?" The Ice mage woke up on the boat, which was fighting a difficult struggle against the raging tides of the sea. It was a rather majestic view, if you don't count the terribly seasick pink-haired boy spewing what seemed to be the food he'd eaten earlier into the vast reaches of the sea.

"On the boat!" A certain blue haired cat replied, slightly hovering above the wooden piece of junk. It was then that Gray noticed he was still tied up.

"What the hell?!" He shouted, but he couldn't really be heard due to a large wave colliding with the small fisherman's boat. Despite the raging sea, the old sailor stood proud, as if he was anticipating something.

"Uh, sorry. It's just that I'd never pass up an opportunity to get a golden gate key, much less for Natsu pass up an opportunity to prove his worth." Lucy replied, somehow managing to hear what the Ice Mage had to say.

"Prove his worth my ass!" Gray screamed in frustration, however to his disappointment he wasn't heard as it was then that a huge wave just appeared above them. He turned up to see the wave, and something else.

'The... sailor?' He was surprised to see that the old man had grown wings. It was then that everything went black.

"Ugh, where are we?" The blonde haired celestial mage asked, after waking up. It seemed to be midday, with the sun shining warmly. She was relieved to find herself lying on the sand. A perfect day to spend at the beach, but she had more important matters at hand. She looked around as next to her she saw the other three Fairy Tail members-Gray, somehow still tied up, Natsu, asleep just like Gray, and Happy, unconscious due to shock. Cats don't like water, after all, much less nearly drowning in it.

'It seems we were washed ashore. Yes, this is definitely it. Galuna Island.' Lucy thought, checking her surroundings. It was then that she heard somebody speak next to her, in a soft, high pitched voice which she immediately recognized.

"Fish... Fish!" A blue feline mumbled in his sleep, his own words waking him up. Immediately he turned around, seeing Lucy and the two unconscious boys. Lucy had the perfect idea to wake them up.

"Ow!" They said in synch, lumps on their heads appearing as symmetrically as possible.

"Now that you're with us, why don't you help us with the job? Not that I actually need any help from you!" Natsu said, examining his surroundings. It was the Galuna Island, indeed, as he could tell by a somewhat different sky colour. Instead of blue, it had a slight tint of purple in it, and he knew the reason for it.

"It's pretty opposite! If I can complete this mission, then the master will have all the more reason to make me an S-class mage!" Gray replied. That being said, they followed what Natsu stated to be his keen sense of smell, which was actually his memory, to the village.

Several hours earlier, a pirate ship had been stolen, along with the whole crew. It seems that since then for a couple of hours they were commanded by captain Erza, who had taken control of them.

"W-where shall we take you?" On pirate asked, visibly shaking.

"Galuna Island." The swordswoman replied. Suddenly, other pirates began shaking even more. They had no idea what to be more afraid of - the scarlet haired mage, or the fact that they were headed onto an island that is supposedly cursed. She noticed that. "Are you doubting my command?" She added, now being at her scariest.

"No, of course no!" Other pirates shook their head in fear as they started heading towards the small piece of land amidst the sea. All she knew is that since Gray probably joined Natsu and Lucy anyway, she'll have to bring them all back. For punishment at master's hands, at least that's what she had been told. Several hours later, the ship had finally arrived at the shore, as the scarlet haired mage jumped off and headed in a random direction, in hopes of finding Natsu and the others. At the same time, the others had already arrived at the village, and about to enter it.

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**Thank you for reading yet another chapter, I think this chapter, was in fact, slightly better than the other ones, in addition I apologize for the lack of updates during the past 5 or 6 days. Oh, and a little request! If you favourite or follow, please leave a review so I can improve!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I obviously don't own FT. I think I'll be discontinuing disclaimers from now on, and instead will include a flashy, bold title.**

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They had arrived at the village. It seemed like a normal village, having wooden walls for protection, in which an average semi-primitive tribe would live, except for something. Every single villager had one of their limbs turned into a demon-y substance, to a degree. The villagers were not expecting company, and thus were quite hesitant to open the gate. Eventually, they opened it and the small team went through, examining the small tribal settlement.

"Could you be the mages from fairy tail?" "You must help us! Please!" Pleaded the villagers one after another, hoping to be free of their curse.

"That's what we came here for. We'll do our best." Lucy replied. Despite looking scary, the villagers were friendly, and really liked the idea of being freed.

"That's it! Let's go!" Natsu shouted, as he ran off to the forest. He did it before asking any questions about the curse nor its cause. With a sweat drop, Gray, Lucy and Happy followed to where he had ran off to.

Some time later, they came upon what seemed to be an ancient temple. It was already evening, and there was a purple beam of light between the middle part of the temple and the sky. It was then that an explosion was heard from inside, and it's cause was pretty obvious.

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted as she and the others entered the temple, only to find the ground beneath her tremble and shatter to pieces. A faint "Eep!" Could be heard.

It was dark where they landed, as sunlight didn't go as far as the lower levels of the temple. Not only that, it was already evening, and sun was setting.  
"Ugh, where are we?" Lucy asked, rubbing her head.

"There is some sort of a cave system below the temple." Happy answered, after landing softly with his flight powers. While examining their surroundings, the search party heard faint footsteps.

"What was that ruckus all about?" A young man, with long spiky blue hair and large eyebrows asked. He was a bit confused, and worried, but didn't show it.

"I've no idea- Ooon!" A man with a peculiar head, which resembled a dog's face replied. He seemed stupid, and in truth, was just as stupid as he looked.

"The temple must be getting old, Toby." the blue-haired man continued, "But it's also possible that there are intruders. If there are, search the area and return to me."

"We've gotta hide." Gray whispered. Everyone cowered behind the rock once again. Now, Natsu had plenty of time to think. Think about his current situation, and what he should do next, as this was the very first moment where he could change history critically. Why didn't he want to do it? Perhaps he knew things would play out like they do, but if you can avoid bad things from happening, why not? Maybe it was losing grasp of the events to come, as a slight change now could significantly change, say, their fight with Grimoire Heart. Was he afraid of changing things because he was afraid of not knowing what might happen next? Was that his fear? Or was it something else?

'There's no point in facing Ultear after the Deliora is unsealed. So I'll face her out the moment I see her.' He concluded.

"We're in the clear, they aren't anywhere nearby anymore." Gray said, still somewhat silently.

"Alright, we proceed in that direction." Natsu replied, pointing to a certain wider area in the cave.

"Aye sir!" Happy replied in his usual cheerful tone as they started walking.

"That-that's HIM!" Gray shouted at a gigantic figure of a demon, frozen in what seemed to be impenetrable magical ice.

"That's what?" Lucy asked in confusion, while Natsu simply sat down on a rock nearby, Happy landing on his shoulder.

"Deliora! One of dark mage Zeref's demons!" He replied, confused, and in panic, "what the hell is it doing here?"

"It was sealed, right?" Natsu asked. He knew the answer, but refreshing his memory once in a while wouldn't do any bad.

"Yes, it was. By my teacher, Ur! She cast a spell known as Iced Shell, it uses the caster's life force to seal the target." he said, still worried, "in this case, Ur IS the ice itself now. Her life force was transformed into it. The question is, why was it brought here?" Before anybody could continue, Lucy pushed their heads down as she heard talking coming from the direction they came from.

"It seems it was just some falling rocks after all." The spiky blue haired man replied. Next to him, there was an odd-looking male, who would seem a bit strange to any person who looked at him, no matter what. He was wearing a tribal mask and had long green hair, with a mischevous grin plastered to his face. The third male was the not very smart dog-person, trying to understand whatever the spiky blue haired man was saying.

'Let's see... the blue-hair guy uses wave magic, but I know how to counter that. The dog guy doesen't have a very sharp mind, so it should be easy for someone like Gray to take care of him. And Ultear, she uses time magic, and according to what gray said after the Tenrou incident, also Ice magic. This is going to be fun.' Natsu thought, carefully examining every option. 'If I use fire dragon's roar, it'll just be redirected thanks to the guy's wave magic. But if I attack fast enough, and from behind, he won't have the time to react.'

As he finished planning, he signaled the others to follow him, and hid behind the trio. He told Lucy not to interfere at first, and support if needed, Gray to take on the dog-person, and said he was going for the other two. Gray was obviously discontent with how he was bossed around, but it was no time to be discontent.

"Fire dragon's fist!" Natsu shouted, as he hit the blue-haired wave mage from behind. One hit was more than enough to knock him out.

"What-what's going on?" The dog-face person asked in confusion, panicking slightly.

"It seems we've got company, Tob-" The man with long green hair was interrupted as he was forced to dodge the attack coming for him.

"Listen up, Ultear! We need to have a talk!" Natsu shouted, visibly shocking the woman, and confusing Natsu's comrades.

"I knew it! You know something about this, don't you?" Gray shouted with distrust.

"Just let me handle this." The pink-haired dragon slayer replied, to the ice mage's annoyance.

"What is going on?" Lucy was confused, as she stood there, not knowing what to do.

"You sure look weird, old man!" Happy shouted, as the old green haired man smirked.

"Well then, this is interesting." The green haired man replied, as he slowly transformed into his original form. A woman with long, black hair, blue oriental attire and a crystal ball.

"I'd like to know about how you found out who I really am, and whether you know about our plans or not." She said.

"You'll have to beat it out of me!" Natsu replied, warming up for the upcoming fight.

"With pleasure." The woman replied. The man with the face of a dog was just standing where he was, not knowing what to do.

"I- I gotta report to the master!" He said, attempting to escape.

"Not so fast!" Gray shouted, following the dog person closely.

"Now then, let's get the party started." Natsu said, crackling his knuckles. Lucy, too, was quite confident, despite not knowing what the opponent really is, nor understanding what the conversation was about.

* * *

**Thank you for reading yet another chapter, and this is the longest delay so far. I apologize, this was due to school, homework, and other important stuff. This is by no means dead and I'll continue to update the fic. This is where the story really deviates from the anime a bit. How did you like it?**


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